While the city has discussed using the Olympic marina after the Games — as Paris plans to do with an Olympic pool — the sea is too chilly to swim in during most of the school year. One of France’s soccer greats, Zinedine Zidane, who carried the Olympic torch in the Paris opening ceremony, was born in the most notorious of Marseille’s quartiers nord. SEA, SEA EVERYWHEREThe sea as an entry and a meeting point is engrained in the very DNA of Marseille. “Before it’s a city, Marseille is a port,” said Fabrice Denise, director of the Museum of Marseille History, built next to the Greek archeological site in what is still the city’s center. “You can see Marseille, and the sea, and the horizon, all under her benevolent gaze,” said the basilica’s rector, the Rev.
